The Cover-Up Is Always Worse Than the Crime

By Paul Lukas, on January 1st, 2014

This is interesting: Rice offensive lineman Ian Gray normally wears No. 72, but they sometimes like to bring him as a tight end. In the NFL, he would simply report to the officials and they would announce, “No. 72 is eligible on this play.” But apparently college rules don’t allow for that (can someone fill me in on the specifics?), because Gray donned a side-zippered — or maybe size-Velcro’d? — cover-up jersey with an eligible number when he lined up as a tight end. I’ve seen this done for players wanting to avoid a duplicate-number situation on special teams, not for a tackle-eligible play. Anyway, as you can see above, Gray’s cover-up jersey came undone during one of his plays during yesterday’s Auto Parts Bowl.

As you can also see, Rice had a new helmet for that game. I’ll have more info on that, and on all of yesterday’s uni news, tomorrow.

(Special thanks to Don Schafer and Chris Perrenot for the screen shots.)

Uni Watch Exclusive!: The U.S. Army All-American Bowl — that’s a high school all-star game — will take place this Saturday, and here’s an exclusive first look at the uniforms. Whatever else you can say about them, it’s refreshing to see game with a military tie-in using uniforms that don’t feature camouflage.

That’s it for today. Lots more tomorrow! Happy 2014 to one and all. — Paul

47 comments to The Cover-Up Is Always Worse Than the Crime

aflfan|
January 1, 2014 at 9:37 am |

Paul,

Here is the rule on who can catch a forward pass from the NCAA Rule book

Eligibility To Touch Legal Forward Pass
ARTICLE 3. a. Eligibility rules apply during a down when a legal forward pass
is thrown.
b. All Team B players are eligible to touch or catch a pass.
c. When the ball is snapped, the following Team A players are eligible:
1. Each lineman who is on the end of his scrimmage line and who is
wearing a number other than 50 through 79.
2. Each back wearing a number other than 50 through 79

Seriously. It’s usually the non-FBS schools copying the big schools or getting the brand new stuff three years late. I think the wings are only from the old Oregon shoulder design- very sloppy seconds/JV indeed.

Padday|
January 1, 2014 at 10:59 am |

Why does a high school all-star game need a military tie-in in the first place? It all seems a little strange to be honest. Since when has Uni Watch been so enthusiastic about an exclusive, let alone one for just another tacky piece of dayglo wank for a game that few people will care about, which nonetheless seems to be little more than a propaganda rally for the U.S. Army anyway?

Dan|
January 1, 2014 at 12:18 pm |

It’s an peculiar tie-in. Every player in that game has a free ride to a university and will likely not be joining the military (unless a service academy gets one of those kids). I am not sure who watches that game but it’s almost as if they want kids who aren’t in the game to say “welp, I’m not good enough to play football anymore, might as well go enlist”

KT|
January 1, 2014 at 12:31 pm |

My GUESS is it’s far less about where the individual players are going to college and more about marketing the Army. For years now, the various branches of the armed services have sponsored race cars and advertised heavily in an attempt to encourage enlistment.

I would think, yes, Dan, that they hope that one of the demos that would watch such a game would be those about to leave high school who may not have college in their plans post-graduation. I would guess that’s a sweet spot in terms of recruiting for them. And they can put on the whole game and everything surrounding it out of their marketing budget

Phil Hecken|
January 1, 2014 at 11:26 am |

HAPPY NEW YEAR Uni Watchers!

Gill|
January 1, 2014 at 12:19 pm |

How about the Michigan quarterback wearing Tom Harmon’s #98 this season? Who has to approve that?

Just realized you meant in relation to actually playing at that position… but, really, 50-79 are the only numbers that are restricted to position in the NCAA. The rest are, as indicated, just “recommended” – in other words, guidelines or suggestions.

Ryan|
January 1, 2014 at 12:59 pm |

Having spent 4 years in college working in the football equipment room I can tell you we had one player on the o-line who would have to change jerseys depending on the situation. Having been assigned to work with the Oline I was in charge of keeping the “other” jersey. I wish they would institute the same rule as the NFL. Same with High School, we had a kid who played defense and sometimes offense… we actually had a velcro jersey similar to the Rice thing here.

aflfan|
January 1, 2014 at 8:24 pm |

Yep, back when I was in high school, I managed the football team and our center was our kicker. He had a pull over jersey that he had to wear to kick. I was in charge of the jersey and his kicking shoe.

Ricko|
January 1, 2014 at 1:41 pm |

Great bench jackets on the coaches in the Winter Classic.

Just…great.

Brinke|
January 1, 2014 at 10:26 pm |

yes, very nice. tho I wonder- how much longer will Reebok be in the NHL? they have no presence anywhere else.

Well, I still don’t like the Red Wings’ use of “antique white” trim in contrast to the Maple Leafs’ normal white trim… but it’s not as horrible in-game as I feared. (Maybe it’s the near-blizzard conditions.)

In any case, it’s still nice to see color vs. color here.

DJ|
January 1, 2014 at 2:15 pm |

Love the deep blue (Varsity Blue?) shade Toronto is using.

I can see Detroit using the off-white color; it goes well with red and is good for a one-off.

Ricko|
January 1, 2014 at 2:18 pm |

Wait.
South Carolina looks like South Carolina.
Wisconsin looks like Wisconsin.
LSU looks like LSU.
Iowa look like Iowa.

Clearly, these four schools know NOTHING about how a team should dress for a bowl game.

Odessasteps|
January 1, 2014 at 3:02 pm |

Some of the Leafs are wearing eye black, some with wacky designs (bryce harper aka Road Warriors look).

DCA|
January 1, 2014 at 3:13 pm |

I’ve been out of the loop for a while. Are they wearing throwbacks or fauxbacks in the Winter Classic?

All the more reason to stop singing it before every damn sporting event.

Padday|
January 1, 2014 at 10:02 pm |

Yeah. It seems a bit like complaining about a fart in a barn. It’s hardly surprising that gratuitous self-aggrandizement should take place during an act of gratuitous self-aggrandizement

Dan|
January 1, 2014 at 10:15 pm |

I respect this view. Never considered that angle before.

Brendan the Aspie|
January 1, 2014 at 8:43 pm |

Random fact: The Jaguars have had four different primary away uniforms in the last 11 seasons (’03 through ’13) – five if you count the 2009-11 and 2012 jerseys as separate, as they changed the striping prior to 2012. Also four different home uniforms from ’08 through ’13, but this is debatable because the ’12 black uniform may have been an alternate.

Random fact #2: The 2009 uniforms lasted only four years, in “violation” of the NFL’s five-year rule.